Religion in the United Kingdom, and in the various nations that preceded it, has been dominated by various forms of
Christianity for over 1,000 years but has grown more diverse over the course of the
20th century. Religious affiliations of British residents and citizens are recorded by regular surveys and published yearly as the
British Religious Attitudes Survey.
According to the
2020 Religious Attitudes Survey, Christianity (taken together) is the majority religion, with just under two thirds of the population describing themselves as members of one Christian sect or another. The established
Church of England has just over 34,000,000 members, representing around 47% of the nation. The memberships of the established churches of
Scotland and
Ireland (the
Church of Scotland and
Church of Ireland, respectively) are much smaller, with around 1.2 million and 0.5 million adherents, respectively.
Catholicism is the second largest religion, with just over 10 million adherents nationwide, although nearly half of that comes from Ireland, where it is demographically the dominant religion. Other sects, such as
Methodism and
Baptism, are much smaller but retain certain regional strongholds.
After Christianity,
Islam is the second most common religion, with just under 3 million members, of whom around 75% are of the
Sunni sect.
Hinduism,
Sikhism,
Judaism (mostly
Reform Judaism) and
Buddhism then follow in terms of the number of adherents. Just over 250,000 people are members of other, smaller, religions and nearly 60,000 claim adherence to
neopagan or
wiccan beliefs. However, despite the numerical dominance of Christian sects, regular church attendance among self-described Christians is relatively low, at only 50%, whereas regular attendance at places of worship amongst Muslims, Hundus, Sikhs, Jews and Buddhists ranges from 75-90%.
After Christianity, however, the largest individual belief groups are those who do not state their religion (7%) or who declare themselves as being
atheists,
agnostics or otherwise having no religion (20%). These numbers increased rapidly over the course of the second half of the 20th century, peaking in the 1990s with just under a third of the country declaring themselves to be atheist or agnostic. However, numbers have declined since then due to a revival in religious feeling and have plateaued at around their present number in the past decade.
Religious figures have held political office in the United Kingdom and its predecessor states for many centuries. Bishops have sat in the
House of Lords as
Lords Spiritual since at least the 13th century. Since the
Reformation, the position of Lords Spiritual came to be divided between archbishops and bishops of the Churches of England and Ireland. (The Church of Scotland does not have bishops in a traditional sense.) However, this settlement became increasingly unsatisfactory over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly following the enactment of
Irish Home Rule and then subsequent waves of
non-Christian immigration to the UK.
Several attempts were made to reform the position of the Lords Spiritual, with a proposal to abolish them as part of the
Lords reforms of the 1960s failing in committee. In the 1990s, under the
Liberal-Conservative coalition,
Ferdinand Mount (as
Lord President of the Council) took on personal responsibility for reforming the Lords Spiritual, leading to the
Lords Spiritual (Reform) Act 1993. Coming into force on 1 January 1995, the act reserved at least 26 seats for the Lords Spiritual, with one being set aside for the
Archbishop of Canterbury (as the most senior cleric in the United Kingdom) and the remainder being divided up proportionally between all religions which have over 250,000 adherents. In each case, the number of Lords Spiritual allocated to each religion is rounded up to at least 1. In practice this means that there are often more than 26 in total (for example, for the 2020-25 term there are
33, including the Archbishop of Canterbury). These are then refreshed every five years according to the latest data on religious beliefs. By convention, the Lords Spiritual do not take a party whip but otherwise take a full part in Lords’ affairs.
This arrangement has caused controversy, particularly for the inclusion of atheism/agnosticism as a recognised spiritual belief. The
Electoral Commission recognised the
British Humanist Association as the official voice of British atheists and agnostics in 1994 and the organisation traditionally organises a ballot of its members every five years to decide who should be their representatives. The Electoral Commission has also designated certain organisations as the official leadership for
British Muslims (the
Association of British Muslims),
Hindus (the
Hindu Council UK),
Sikhs (the
Sikh Federation),
Jews (the
Board of Deputies of British Jews - although by convention their appointee as Lord Spiritual has been held by the
Chief Rabbi to the Commonwealth) and
Buddhists (the
Buddhist Society). This has periodically caused controversy and is reviewed before each re-allocation of seats.
British Religious Attitudes Survey, 2020
Lords Spiritual 2020-25